Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the David Outlaw Papers, #1534, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy available.

Acquisitions Information

Gift 1948

Additional Descriptive Resources

This PDF contains scans of older, paper-based versions of the description of this collection. When requesting materials please use container numbers in the current version of the finding aid.

The older, paper-based ("original") versions of the finding aid for this collection are filed in folder 1.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis for digitization, October 2010; Nancy Kaiser, January 2023

Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, biographical note, and scope and content note.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American farmers--Southern States--History--19th century.
• Anderson family.
• Bertie County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Farm management--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Legislators--United States--History--19th century.
• Mexican War, 1846-1848.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1775-1865.
• Outlaw family.
• Outlaw, David, 1806-1868.
• Sectionalism (United States)
• Slavery--North Carolina.
• Slavery--United States--Extension to the territories.
• Slavery--United States--History--19th century--Sources.
• Tennessee--Genealogy.
• United States--Politics and government--1845-1861.
• Washington (D.C.)--Social life and customs.

David Outlaw, a white farmer and a Whig congressman from 1847 to 1853, owned a farm near Windsor in Bertie County, N.C., whose operations included the forced labor of enslaved people. George, an enslaved person, managed the farm in David Outlaw's absence. David Outlaw was married to Emily Outlaw.

David Outlaw, a white farmer and a Whig member of Congress from 1847 to 1853, owned a farm near Windsor in Bertie County, N.C., whose operations included the forced labor of enslaved people. George, an enslaved person, managed the farm in David Outlaw's absence. The collection is chiefly correspondence of David Outlaw to his wife, Emily Outlaw. Subjects discussed are trafficking (then called "hiring out") of people enslaved by the Outlaws; state and national politics, including the Mexican War, slavery, sectionalism, the Wilmot Proviso, the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and various politicians; social life in Washington, D.C.; and Outlaw's family, especially the education of their daughters, and the farm. Also included are a few letters from Outlaw's wife and daughter and genealogical material on the Outlaw and Anderson families of Tennessee (typed transcriptions).

• Oversize paper folder (OPF-1534/1)
• Microfilm (M-1534/1)